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Clarence Darrow's Lessons for Today's More Ethical Lawyer

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Clarence Darrow's Lessons for Today's More Ethical Lawyer Clarence Darrow’s Lessons For Today’s More Ethical Lawyer A Dramatic Interactive Legal Ethics Seminar Developed by ProEthics, Ltd. for the Maryland Bankruptcy Bar Assocation May 4, 2018 – Annapolis, MD 2 Clarence Darrow’s Lessons For Today’s More Ethical Lawyer A Two-Hour Interactive Legal Ethics Seminar Developed by ProEthics Ltd. for the Maryland Bankruptcy Bar Association May 4, 2018 – Annapolis, Maryland These materials are presented with the understanding that ProEthics, the facilitator, and the Maryland Bankruptcy Bar Association (“the Bar”) render no legal, accounting, or other professional services. Due to the rapidly changing nature of the law, information contained in this publication may become outdated over time, and as a result, any individual using these materials and the information presented must always research original sources of authority when acting on issues addressed herein. In no event will the Bar, the facilitator, or ProEthics be liable for any direct, indirect, or consequential damages resulting from the use of these materials or the information contained in this seminar. 2018 Jack Marshall and ProEthics Ltd. All Rights Reserved For questions or further information about ProEthics programming, please contact: ProEthics, Ltd. 2707 Westminster Place Alexandria, VA 22305 703-548-5229 Jack Marshall – [email protected] Grace Marshall – [email protected] www.proethics.com www.ethicsalarms.com © 2018 Jack Marshall & ProEthics, Ltd. 3 Your Facilitators Jack Marshall President, ProEthics Ltd. And Paul Morella Jack Marshall is the president and founder of ProEthics, Ltd., and the primary author of Ethics Alarms (www.ethicsalarms.com), an ethics commentary blog on everything from legal ethics and politics to sports and popular culture. He has taken the experience gleaned from a diverse career in law, public policy, academia and theater and applied it to the field of legal, business and organizational ethics. Over 21 years he has developed more than 200 programs for bar associations, law firms, Fortune 500 companies, trade associations, local and national government agencies and non-profit organizations, has worked to develop rules of professional responsibility for attorneys in emerging African democracies through the International Bar Association and for the new judiciary of the Republic of Mongolia through USAID. He also serves as outside ethics counsel for a number of US firms. A member of the Massachusetts and DC Bars, Mr. Marshall has served as an adjunct professor of legal ethics at the Washington College of law at the American University School of Law in Washington, DC. He co-authored and edited, with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward Larson, The Essential Words and Writings of Clarence Darrow. (Random House, 2007). Marshall is a graduate of Harvard College and Georgetown University Law Center. His articles and commentary on topics ranging from leadership and ethics to popular culture have appeared in numerous national and regional publications, and he has appeared on a variety of talk shows to discuss ethics and public policy. He is also an award-winning stage director, and as the founder of The American Century Theater, a professional non-profit theater company dedicated to producing classic American plays, he served as artistic director for 20 years. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and business partner, Grace Marshall, their son Grant, and their Jack Russell Terrier, Rugby. Like all who are truly interested in the nature of good, evil, justice, and chaos, Marshall is a lifetime fan of the Boston Red Sox. © 2018 Jack Marshall & ProEthics, Ltd. 4 Paul Morella is a professional actor who has performed in regional theatre, film, television, and radio for more than 35 years. Originally from Washington, DC, his extensive credits include more than 55 leading roles in over 125 professional productions, from classical to contemporary, as well as 19 world premieres. A multiple Helen Hayes Award nominee, Mr. Morella has performed at some of the most prestigious theatres in the country, including The Shakespeare Theatre, Arena Stage, the Kennedy Center, the Studio Theatre, Signature Theatre, LA Theatre Works, the National Players, American Showcase Theatre, the Delaware Theatre Company, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and many others. No stranger to lawyers, he received unanimous critical acclaim and a Helen Hayes Award nomination for his portrayal of Roy Cohn in both parts of Angels In America, and has appeared as prosecuting attorney Horace Gilmer in the world premiere of To Kill A Mockingbird, as well as attorney Jarreld Schwabe opposite Julia Roberts in The Pelican Brief. He has worked on the HBO series, The Wire, and was a recurring cast member of the CBS television show, The District, with Craig T. Nelson. A Master in Fine Arts (Acting) graduate of Catholic University, he has also portrayed three felons and two victims on the Fox-TV series, America's Most Wanted, and was recently chosen as one of only two actors to be featured on their special 700th Capture episode. For the past 10 years, he has presented his original adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a one-man production he conceived, directed and performed, recently chosen by The Washington Post as the area’s best version of the holiday classic. In addition to Clarence Darrow, he has appeared as John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and most recently, as Teddy Roosevelt in a world premiere production at the Kennedy Center, in conjunction with the White House Historical Society. In 2000, along with Jack Marshall, Mr. Morella collaborated on an original one-person drama, A Passion for Justice, and thus began his long association with twentieth century’s greatest trial lawyer, Clarence Darrow. Following a successful run at The American Century Theater, Mr. Morella began touring with the production on his own, and for the past 15 years, he has performed the show before some of the most elite and prestigious trial lawyers, law firms, legal organizations, and law schools in the country. He was invited by Tom Girardi (Erin Brockovich’s lawyer) to present the show before the International Academy of Trial Lawyers at their annual convention in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. In 2009, the production enjoyed an extended run at Olney Theatre, followed by a sold-out run at Everyman Theatre in Baltimore. Mr. Morella has been a faculty member of the Washington College of Law for over 20 years, where he teaches the art of persuasion as part of their Trial Advocacy Program. His professional union affiliations include membership in the Screen Actors’ Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and Actors’ Equity Association. © 2018 Jack Marshall & ProEthics, Ltd. 5 Today’s Schedule 1. Opening Statement: “Clarence Darrow: The Dark Side Of Lawyers, The Brilliant Side Of The Profession” 2. Zealous Representation and the Scopes Trial 3. Courtroom Stunts, Sharp Practice and the Culture of Legal ethics 4. Ethics and the Progressive Lawyer 5. Darrow and Integrity 6. “Humanity is the Ultimate Conflict” 7. Summation: The Verdict on Clarence Darrow Appendix I: Hypotheticals and References Appendix II: The 1908 Canons of Ethics © 2018 Jack Marshall & ProEthics, Ltd. 6 1. Clarence Darrow: The Dark Side of Lawyers, T he Brilliant Side of the Profession A. Introduction: Meet Clarence Darrow From “The Essential Words and Writings of Clarence Darrow” by Edward Larson and Jack Marshall (2007) …Although he is primarily remembered today as a trial lawyer (nearly three quarters of a century after his death, Clarence Darrow still routinely tops all surveys and polls as the lawyer most admired by other legal practitioners), he embraced this profession primarily for the opportunities it provided him to do the things he really cared about: arguing, opposing powerful institutions, and pursuing social reform (he didn’t mind the money and fame, either.) He certainly had no love for the law itself, which he looked upon less as the connective tissue of civilization than as a truncheon wielded by the strong and rich to control the weak and poor. Once, when a prosecutor accused Darrow of helping a criminal evade the law, Darrow responded, “The law? To hell with the law! My business is to save this defendant from the law!” …Clarence Darrow ( 1857-1938) was the son of a mother who turned her family home into a stop on the Underground Railroad, and a father who loved books better than people and who was, in Darrow’s words, both “the village infidel” and its undertaker. From the mother he inherited progressive and humanistic instincts, and from the father a love of history and literature as well as an unrestrained delight in voicing unpopular opinions. And from the undertaker’s trade he seems to have contracted a strain of dark fatalism that often waged war with Darrow’s soaring aspirations for the human race. © 2018 Jack Marshall & ProEthics, Ltd. 7 Clarence Darrow got a late start on his epic career. Until the age of 31, he was seemingly content to be country lawyer in Ashtabula, Ohio, where his most exciting case was a dispute over a fifteen dollar harness. But a banker acquaintance in Ashtabula fired Darrow’s dormant passion for social reform when he gave him a little book entitled “Our Penal Code and Its Victims” by Judge Peter Altgeld of Chicago. It inspired Darrow to move to Chicago, where he became close friends with its author, soon to become the Governor of Illinois. And it taught him how powerful the written word could be in changing minds and lives. Darrow became a Chicagoan in 1888, just as the Haymarket bombing signaled that labor unrest was heating to a boil. Very quickly he was thrust into the pot, defending labor leader Eugene V. Debs in the railroad union strike. Darrow’s defense failed, but his skill and passion for the cause impressed Debs’ allies, and it proved to be the start of Darrow’s twenty year run as the labor movement’s courtroom champion.
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